Shedding some light on The Darkness II (preview)

I have to admit it. I can’t get around it any longer. I hated the visuals for The Darkness II the first time I saw it. The graphic noir look just didn’t jibe with me. Digital Extremes took great care in hand-painting every texture to give the sequel a comic book look. It gives the game an appearance that’s not cel-shaded and also not photorealistic. It’s vibrant, gorgeous and something that doesn’t seem to complement a dark brooding comic book series.

The second time I saw The Darkness II was at E3 recently, and maybe it was the time of day or the fatigue but I thought I was getting used to the visuals. The demo featured Jackie Estacado on the hunt for the Brotherhood, an anicent organization that at one time wanted to keep the Darkness bottled up. Over centuries, the group became twisted and wanted the Darkness’ powers for themselves.

QUAD DUELING: And that’s how Jackie ends up at abandoned carnival, fighting enemies who know his weakness to light. So it’s one man against an army of violent cultists. How can this be fair? Well, the Darkness gives Jackie the ability to dual wield pistols and carry other guns and also use two tendrils to fend off attackers. One arm is used to grab goons and the other can be used to slash at them.

He can combo the quad wielding. For example, he can grab a foe with one tendril and rip him apart with another. He can hold an enemy up in the air while shooting at him with his guns. There’s even the option to grab a car door and use it as a shield if players end up in a firefight or if they run out of ammo, the arm grab arm can pull rebar out of building and spear someone with it.

Quite frankly, I love the combat, and there’s a lot of opportunity to get creative with the kills almost like Bulletstorm. What’s even better is that The Darkness II even rewards players for it. The gorier the deaths the more essence the player earns and that can be used at the Dark Shrines to upgrade players powers.

A MORE POWERFUL DARKNESS: One of the powers that players can purchase is Gun Channeling. It adds The Darkness to the bullets Jackie fires so that it does more damage. (The gunfire looks all purple when players activate it.) If you can combine this power with the Heart of Darkness ability, players can see and shoot through walls.

Along with the tendrils and other abilities, Jackie will also run across the Darkling, which is sort of like a sadistic sidekick. It’s an impish creature that looks like it runs on its own AI and distracts foes or attacks them itself. It gives Jackie an opening to fire on enemies. From my impression, It definitely has more of a role in the sequel.

When it comes to fighting the Brotherhood, they do more than just shoot guns at Jackie. The baddies have light grenades that both blind the hero and also take away his powers. In addition, they can weaken him with flood lights and even take away his weapons. The enemies seem more intelligent this time around. They’re more than just cannon fodder for the barrel of players’ Uzis.

THE STORY SO FAR: As far as the story goes, Digital Extremes seems to have a handle on Jackie. The script acknowledges the tragedy in his past. In the first game, he saw his girlfriend, Jenny, die as The Darkness prevented him from saving her. It’s partly because of this that Jackie eschews using the entity for a long time. He prefers to keep it bottled up within himself and it’s part of the reason there’s an antagonistic relationship with the Darkness.

Players will see that play out in battles and gunfights. Sometimes Jackie will think he sees Jennie and the Darkness will mock him for it. Other times, they’ll be struggling for dominance. During at least one scenario, he’ll have to fight the Brotherhood to keep his power. (The group almost physically tears the entity out of Jackie’s body.)

There’s all these strands of tension woven throughout The Darkness II that the game actually has me hopeful. Maybe it’ll be more than just an average run and gun shooter. Even if I’m not keen on the visuals, the gameplay and story make me want to play it when the game is released in October for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

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